https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2018/10/spring-government-aims-halve-600000-security-clearance-backlog/152439/
By Heather Kuldell
Managing Editor
Nextgov
October 30, 2018
Over the last two months, the government reduced its massive security
clearance backlog to 600,000 and expects to cut that load in half by
spring, a top intelligence official said.
The government's antiquated security clearance process -- which vets the
background of government, military and contractor personnel -- has long
been criticized as a choke-point for hiring and a reason the government
can't tap top talent.
"This constant problem had literally got to a crisis stage," Senate
Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Tuesday
at a security clearance event hosted by George Mason University's National
Security Institute. "When we're talking about backlogs that are
740,000-plus and we're thinking about young agents potentially joining the
CIA waiting two years before they're cleared or folks in the private
sector waiting in limbo for huge periods of time simply moving from one
contract to another within in DHS for example, we got a problem."
Part of the problem is a process that looks largely like it did decades
ago, with government agents going in person to verify college transcripts
and criminal histories. It also doesn’t take into account the changing
nature of work as employees don't usually stay at one company for 30 years
like in previous generations, he said.
[...]
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